Harpo and I are always tinkering with our food systems. As any hiker knows, a major topic of discussion is ALWAYS food – how heavy it is, do you have enough, when you get to eat again, food fantasies and of course TOWN FOOD.
Our approach for the first 500 miles of our PCT theu has been a hybrid of our AT food system (we still had a few homemade dehydrated meals so we used them to cut costs) and some experimentation.

We  included a stove (we’re using a canister stove due to extreme fire danger, rather than the alcohol stove we used on the AT) so we can utilize our dehydrated meals, which has also helped speed up rehydrating ramen, miso, and dehydrated beans. We have hot food once a day, usually during our afternoon break. Breakfasts are a bar and some homemade HARPOW – a powder mix made of 1/3 coconut milk, 1/3 vegan chocolate protein powder, and 1/3 ramon (a Central American foraged superfood – we picked up a bunch when we were in Guatemala for yoga teacher training – it tastes kinda mocha like). Dinner is trail mix. During the day we have dried fruit & trail mix and maybe a bar for snacks.

We were happy with our AT food system, and ate well for sure, but wanted more flexibility as the hike evolved. We dropping the stove with Harpo’s parents who are visiting us at Cascade Locks and are moving to cold hydration, which should suit the hot days ahead. We’ll keep eating ramen (with Edwards & Sons powders miso packets rather than the msg heavy and culturally insensitive ‘oriental flavor’ packets) and add in powdered hummus, beans, and soups. Also, we need to eat 2 jars of chocolate peanut butter in the first 2 days – these are our new ‘cook pots’ as our aluminum pot & cozy goes with the stove.

Overall we’re following our original plan for PCT meals, and we haven’t starved yet! 

Also, Can I give a shout out to whoever engineered Fritos Scoops? They’re the perfect scooping solution for rehydrated beans and soup. Like any chip they crumble in the pack (the crumble topping reminds me of the vegan Frito pie my friend Pol fed the entire artist population of Pioneer Square when we worked at Elliot Bay Cafe)  but when they’re good, they’re great.